Richard Bentwood has won on appeal against his client’s conviction and sentence for contempt of court for refusing to amend a defence case statement when ordered to do so by the trial judge. It was held that any order by a judge to comply with the requirements of ss 5(5) and 6A of the Criminal Investigation and Procedure Act 1996 to serve a defence statement in the required form, was no more than an articulation of those provisions, and a court does not have any power to punish non-compliance as a contempt of court. The sanction for such a failure is explicit in s 11 of the statute; an adverse inference can be drawn. The judge had no power to rule as he did and the finding of and sentence for contempt was quashed.

This case has been reported. Please follow the link below to read more:

http://www.lawreports.co.uk/WLRD/2010/CACrim/R_v_R.html

For a link to an article on the case that appeared in The Advocate, written by the instructing solicitor, Kevin Lowry Mullins of Dass & Co please click here.